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Hot-button issue

South Side company wants to recycle fracking debris

Environmentalists wary of plans to remove contaminants from crushed rock

View SlideshowRequest to buy this photoEric Albrecht | DISPATCHChris Elliott says oil and gas companies will pay his Ohio Soil Recycling to take tons of crushed rock that are churned out of the ground during drilling in Utica shale. The rocks would be cleaned of lubricants and used to cover an old landfill near Alum Creek.

Activists who rented this billboard say fracking waste is radioactive and can contaminate the water supply.

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A South Side company’s plan to recycle shale-drilling wastes has brought the state’s fracking
boom, and its environmental concerns, to Columbus.

Ohio Soil Recycling said it makes sense to clean the thousands of tons of crushed rock and shale
— called cuttings — that oil and gas companies churn out of the ground as rigs drill the Utica
shale in eastern Ohio.

The cuttings are typically dumped in landfills.

Chris Elliott, the company’s president, said oil and gas companies will pay him to take the
cuttings that he plans to treat to get rid of drilling lubricants. The cleaned rock and shale would
then be used to help build a cap over an old Franklin County landfill along Alum Creek.

“We are providing a green disposal alternative,” Elliott said.

The company’s plan doesn’t sit well with environmental advocacy groups. Shale can contain
radium, said Carolyn Harding, a Bexley resident and co-founder of Radioactive Waste Alert.

“Radium 226 is water soluble,” Harding said. “We’re concerned it’s going to get into Alum Creek
and that it’s going to affect Columbus residents’ water.”

The group has rented a billboard along James Road that shows a child drinking water from a
bottle that sports a radiation hazard symbol. The message reads, “Don’t frack my water. Protect
Columbus.”

The Ohio Environmental Protection Agency approved Elliott’s plan in August after tests found no
issues with recycling or radium, said Heidi Griesmer, an agency spokeswoman. “We did not see
anything to show that radiation would be a problem.”

For 13 years, Ohio Soil Recycling has broken down toxic contaminants in soil with a mixture of
microbes, bacteria and algae. Developers and businesses pay the company to take the soil from its
worksites, which have included the former Delphi auto-parts plant, which was demolished to make way
for Hollywood Casino Columbus on the West Side.

Elliott said there are companies in Texas and Colorado that recycle shale cuttings from
fracking. Griesmer said Ohio Soil Recycling is the only business in Ohio that has been approved to
do it.

The fracking process injects millions of gallons of water, sand and chemicals underground to
shatter the shale and free trapped oil and gas. Much of the fracking water comes back up tainted
with saltwater that contains toxic metals and radium.

A 2011 U.S. Geological Survey study of saltwater wastes from Pennsylvania’s Marcellus shale
found high concentrations of radium. Radium in one sample was 300 times higher than a Nuclear
Regulatory Commission limit for industrial discharges to water.

Environmental advocates say they are concerned that cuttings are radioactive, too. But Elliott
said he doesn’t believe that the Utica shale poses a threat.

Ralph Haefner, supervisory hydrologist in the U.S. Geological Survey’s Columbus office, said
Utica shale is generally less radioactive than the Marcellus. But he said Utica shale cuttings
should be routinely tested before they are used to cap a landfill.

“Some of the shale cuttings may be totally fine for that use,” Haefner said. “Others may raise a
red flag.”

It’s not clear how much shale might be headed for Columbus, which is more than 100 miles west of
most Ohio shale-drilling sites. Elliott said he hopes to receive his first shipments in
November.

Elliott said he also wants to set up satellite recycling sites in eastern Ohio, where the
cleaned-up shale could be used to fill in reclaimed abandoned strip mines.

“We want to set up one or two facilities in the heart of the (shale) play to service that market
better,” Elliott said.

He’s also willing to set up radiation detectors at his Columbus business to screen the loads of
shale waste as they come in, he said. “If there is a concern, we would send that (waste) away.”